Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/345

latter head a fuller account is given. Changes are commonly spoken of as of three kinds, representing three degrees of abruptness.

1. The Diatonic, which passes from one key to another, nearly related to it, by means of notes common to both, as—

from Bach's Cantata, 'Freue dich, erlöste Schaar.'

2. The Chromatic, when accidentals appear which are not common to both keys, as—

from Mozart's Requiem.

3. The Enharmonic, where advantage is taken of the fact that the same notes can be called by different names, which lead different ways, and consequently into unexpected keys. For instance, the dominant 7th can be translated into the chord of the augmented 6th, and by that means lead into very remote keys, and by the universal transformable power of the inversions of the minor 9th, we can pass from any one key to almost any other; e.g. in Beethoven's 'Leonore' Overture the transition from E major to F is thus managed—

the chord * begin resolved as if it had been written B♭, D♭, G, and being approached as if it should be written A♯, C♯, G. Thus there is a double equivoque. The chord as it is approached seems to be an inversion of the minor 9th of the supertonic of E; it is then written as an inversion of the chord of the minor 9th of the dominant in the key of D, and resolved as an inversion of the minor 9th of the dominant of F. A more obvious instance to the uninitiated is the following—

from Chopin's Nocturne in G minor (op. 15), where he passes from C♯ major to F in this manner.

II. Change is the term applied to any order in which bells are struck other than the usual order in which rings of bells are arranged, viz. the diatonic scale—struck from the highest to the lowest bell; and Change Ringing[1] is the continual production of such changes—without any repetition—from the time the bells leave the position of rounds (1 2 3 4 5 6) to the time they return to that position again. It is an interesting, and, to many, an engrossing art, and has been in practice in this country, it is supposed, for the last 250 years; during which time many persons of rank and education have practised it as an amusement, among the earliest of whom may be mentioned Lord Brereton, and Sir Cliff Clifton in about 1630. Change ringing, as has been said, is the constant production of changes without repetition from the time that the bells leave the position of rounds to the time that they return to that position again. It is a rule that every bell which can change its position should do so in order of striking at each successive blow, thus:—

1 2 3 4 5

2 1 4 3 5

2 4 1 5 3

It is the change ringers' and the composer's object to obtain with as musical a combination as may be, the whole of the changes to be produced on any given number of bells. It will be seen by examining the following figures that with this simple rule—that every bell which can must

↑This work being a Dictionary of Music, a long description of the art would be out of place, and we must therefore refer the reader to the elementary book entitled 'Change Ringing' by Charles A. W. Troyte. Esq., of Honisham, Devon (Masters, New Bond Street), and for the more advanced stages to the book of the same name by Mr. William Banister (Pollard, Exeter).